You knew it was coming, inevitable as the rise of Old Glory on July 4th — the first iPhone 3G line up has begun at the NYC Apple Flagship Store!

Or should we say… Tailgate Party!

(iPhone launches are the Superbowl of consumer electronics, aren’t they?)

The line began forming today, the Friday before the Friday of launch, just 1 week (and a few hours) before the first iPhone 3G goes on sale at 8am (and, if an AT&T estimate of 30 min. per activation is anywhere near accurate, likely 7 days and many hours before the second one will be up for sale!)

Geardiary reports there are almost a dozen people lined up already, with security being very obliging, and Apple Store employees playing nice.

So, here’s to the USA, and to the few, the ultra-devoted — those who dare to phone different first. We’re with you in spirit.

Save some for the rest of us!

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Sure, Casey has his reasons not to upgrade, but I’m all over the latest/greatest. To help out, Apple has posted a great article to their Knowledge Base (KB) that explains the steps necessary to properly move all your data over from your original iPhone (2G) to a hawt new iPhone 3G. The summary reads:

This article explains how to replace an original iPhone with an iPhone 3G using the same carrier. If you follow these steps to backup your original iPhone first, and then restore the backup to your iPhone 3G, your saved SMS messages, email accounts, photos, notes, and other personal settings will be present on your iPhone 3G.

It also covers erasing your old iPhone if you intend to hand it down. (Though, since Secure Erase hasn’t been made available yet, you might want to write over everything with different sets of music data (large playlists) several times if you’re paranoid about privacy and security).

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Although it seems pretty clear that there’s going to be a native chat client for the iPhone 2.0 that will support Google Talk (with background alerts to boot!), there may be those that have a religious injunction against installing applications. There may also be those who don’t intend to upgrade because they don’t want to mess around with losing either their unlocked or jailbroken status. Whatever your reason for not using a native app, Google’s got ya covered with an all new interface for Google Talk, fully optimized for Mobile Safari.

It’s cool and all, but the moment you navigate away (or close) from Safari your status is set to unavailable. On the bright side, though, if you’re a Google-holic it integrates nicely with your contacts and otherwise works exactly how you’d expect a Google Talk Client (inside a web browser) to work.

Just point your iPhone to http://www.google.com/talk to give it a shot.

Declining to announce any plans for a native chat client at this point, Google has announced a Web-based, iPhone-optimized version of Google Talk. A company blog posting reads:

“Our new version of Google Talk is designed specifically for the iPhone and runs in the iPhone’s browser, so you don’t need to download or install anything. Just visit www.google.com/talk on your iPhone, sign in, and start chatting. And because it is built for the browser, it will work on today’s iPhones as well as on tomorrow’s 3G iPhones.”

Feedback? info@iphoneatlas.com.

As previously noted, Apple’s new “guided tour” of the iPhone 3G demonstrates operation of the AppStore and a slew of already-detailed functionality. Closer inspection of the video has unveiled a few more revelations.

A look at the bottom of the new iPhone 3G during the video reveals new audio components on the bottom of the iPhone 3G. The left side grill is the speaker and the right hand side is the microphone. Apple purports “greatly enhanced” audio from the new hardware.

Another hardware change: two small screws on the bottom of the device on either side of the standard docking connector. This is a stark design change from a company that is known for hiding screws from sight on handheld devices like the former iPhone and iPods. As of this moment the is unknown why the screws are exposed, though some have speculated that removal and replacement of the battery and other components may be possible (the first-generation iPhone was criticized user-inaccessible battery. Positioning of the screws indicates that, when they are removed, the iPhone 3G may open up like a clam for easy access to the inside.

During the software demonstration segment of the video, the view of the iTunes AppStore reveals an AOL instant messenger application that is available for free and was originally demonstrated on a March 6, 2008 demo.

The longer guided tour video also points out is a new feature of the iPhone OS 2.0 software: while on an airplane that supports Wi-Fi access you can turn Wi-Fi on without leaving Airplane mode. Cellular and Bluetooth connectivity remain disabled when this option is invoked.

Comments? info@iphoneatlas.com.

Apple is calling for developers to submit their iPhone OS applications ahead of the AppStore’s grand opening on July 11th. Developers are being asked to submit their applications by 12 p.m. PST on July 7, 2008. Applications will be accepted after that deadline, but Apple is not making any promises that late applications will be available at the time of the AppStore’s debut.

Apple’s email also notes that developers should test their applications against iPhone OS beta eight prior to submission.

Comments? info@iphoneatlas.com.